Released nearly a year after his death in March 1995, Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton by Easy-E hit #3 in its first week on the charts. I was never that into Easy-E when he was actively popular, and thirty years later my taste hasn't changed in this regard.

The album was unfinished at the time of Easy-E's death. It had to be cobbled together with whatever material was available, which almost certainly reduced the maximum achievable quality. There are some albums that I don't like but I can tell are well made. This one, I'm afraid, is not a quality album. This album can be ignored; I certainly won't be listening to it again.

Going all the way to #2 on the charts in its first week, Boys for Pele by Tori Amos was released just in time for the founding of Pitchfork, thirty years ago this month. Ironically, they didn't review the album until last year, because this album is catnip for Pitchfork. Pitchfork loves albums like Boys for Pele, albums that are experimental and different from what the artist has done before. I swear they give an extra two points in their review if the music is different, regardless of quality. Indeed, they gave Boys for Pele a 9.2 out of 10, which is very high for Pitchfork ratings. Sometimes experimental and different is a good thing. In the case of Boys for Pele, I'm not so sure that it is.

I should disclose that I am not a Tori Amos fan. Before listening to this album I had only two Tori Amos scrobbles, and I'm 100% sure they were part of some mix or online radio station. I do not choose to listen to her music. I did not like this album; there was nothing on it that interested me. She was trying for something, and either she missed, or she accomplished it but I'm too dumb to understand it.

On the one hand, this album is quite a bit different than most of her work, so it is perhaps less fair to judge her from this one album. On the other hand, this album has not changed my mind about Tori Amos. I think I try to allow my mind to be changed by listening to these thirty year old albums. That didn't happen this time.

My recommendation is to not listen to this album.

January continues to be a slow month — this is only my second and last review of the month. Indeed, this week's album wasn't even released in January, 1996. (What's the Story) Morning Glory, was released in October 1995, and took over three months to break into the top ten, and only barely at #9. Oasis is the best known member of the Britpop genre.

Thinking back, I am sure I was aware of Oasis, and the songs on Morning Glory in late 1995 and 1996, but it wasn't my favorite. I didn't dislike it, but I don't think I chose to listen to it, and only heard the songs on the radio. Thinking back even more, I didn't listen to that much Oasis until I spent time in college with someone who was a huge fan (hi Olivia, I'm sure you're not reading this, but I hope you're well!). Since then I've come to like Oasis more, including, and in particular, Morning Glory. It's a very good album and deserves to be listened to. I suggest you do.

If you're not from England, I'll bet you didn't know that 16 stone is equal to 224 lbs.

Early 1996 must have been an exceptionally slow time for new music because this week's album, Sixteen Stone by the English rock band Bush, took roughly a year to reach #10 on the sales chart. This album featured several singles I remember hearing contemporaneously including Comedown, Glycerine, and Everything Zen.

I have listened to Bush a decent amount, but interestingly I have listened to a different (and less popular) Bush album The Science of Things more than Sixteen Stone. My guess is that most of these The Science of Things listens are from before I subscribed to a music streaming service and I listened to that album because it's what was in my collection. Having listened to both albums a fair amount, I agree with the consensus that Sixteen Stone is the better album. I do recommend giving it a spin.

I'm going to keep this short. The #8 album this week is a greatest hits collection of Alan Jackson songs. I've reviewed one of his albums before, which I gave a big ol' "meh." This gets a big ol' "meh," too.

This week the top un-reviewed album is not Christmas In The Aire by Mannheim Steamroller, it is a Garth Brooks album. As I've already discussed, Garth Brooks doesn't allow his catalog on most music streaming services. I don't care enough about Garth Brooks to expend effort to listen to him, so we'll drop down to the #4 album.

I was getting a little bit worried that I would not have any Christmas music to review this year. We're just over a week away from Christmas and by this time last year I had reviewed two (1, 2) Christmas albums. And whoo boy is this some kind of Christmas music.

I wasn't previously familiar with Mannheim Steamroller, or at least if I've heard their music before, I never made the name association. Outside of deliberate parodies or joke albums (like this K9 Tunes Christmas album, which looks like it's AI generated, so it's triply bad), this is the absolute worst kind of Christmas music. It is highly electronic, uninspired, and super lame. It's the kind of music that would be played in a 1980s comedy film that takes place at a ski resort during the slapstick scenes of people falling down the mountain. Just simply horrible. Avoid this album, and I suspect everything Mannheim Steamroller has ever recorded. I'm not brave enough to find out by listening to more of their albums.

I want to mention the use of the extra "e" on "Aire." It appears that Mannheim Steamroller uses "Aire" as their virtual trademark. Many of their albums are named "Fresh Aire." I'm glad this differentiates from the better NPR Fresh Air program, but the extra "e" is still stupid. It reminds me of a local road here in Boulder I often ride on my bike, Olde Stage Road. There's a sign near the road that omitted the extra "e" (because, duh, it makes no sense) which some concerned citizen fixed in the most hilarious and cheap way possible:

The most remarkable thing about this week's #1 album is that it featured the first new Beatles song in 25 years, Free as a Bird. The rest of the album are outtakes, live versions, and short spoken interview quotes by people in and associated with the band.

Like the last Beatles album I reviewed this is not for casual listening and clocks in at over two hours long. You would not want this to be your introduction to The Beatles. In fact, I would urge anyone to listen to the entirety of their catalog before listening to any of the Anthology albums. It's important to have the context of what these songs ultimately sounded like when The Beatles perfected them.

This is not an album that needs to be listened to often and repeatedly. There's a reason why The Beatles worked as hard as they did to perfect their songs, and the polished versions are the what you'll want to hear again and again. In the end, because it's the freakin' Beatles, it is worth checking out when you're in the right mood and have the time.

This week's top un-reviewed album is at #1 by R. Kelly, and I'm not going to review that for obvious reasons. Instead I'll drop down to #4 for the soundtrack for the film Waiting to Exhale.

If you know anything about me, you should be able to guess that I have never seen the movie, and as far as I know I have never listened to the soundtrack before. The soundtrack is full of heavy-hitters like Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Arethra Franklin, and Mary J Blidge. Combined with the popularity of the movie, the album sold quite well, was reviewed positively, and won multiple awards.

I think I kinda sorta remember hearing a few of the songs off the album, but it's been years since I heard any of them. This is one of those albums that I can tell has quality music but I don't care about it. It does nothing for me so I can only offer a neutral opinion with no suggestion one way or the other.

It is unfortunate that I had a thirteen year gap in my listening project. If I had not stopped, or restarted earlier, I might have reviewed Alice in Chains two best recordings: the 1992 album Dirt and the 1994 EP Jar of Flies. They are two of my favorite albums/EPs; I have listened to tracks off them nearly 700 times.

In stark contrast, I have barely listened to the eponymous Alice in Chains album. Listening to this album again I am not upset at my lack of plays. It is nowhere near as good as Dirt and Jar of Flies. On Tidal, of the top thirty tracks by plays for Alice in Chains, only three songs are off the album Alice in Chains. I do not have a Spotify account so I can only see the top ten, but there are zero songs off Alice in Chains on that list.

I can't endorse listening to the album Alice in Chains, but I can strongly suggest giving Dirt and Jar of Flies a play. Dirt, in particular, is one of the greatest grunge albums of all time. The first chord and lyric of first track, Them Bones, hits you hard and grabs your attention like few other songs do.

This week's #1 album, Dogg Food, is by the Snoop (Doggy) Dogg-adjacent Tha Dogg Pound. Apparently the album has done quite well, having sold over two million copies as of 1996. Despite this success, I can't say that I recall ever hearing any of the songs before.

I have no strong opinions about this album. It's pretty typical hip hop from the era, nothing outstanding, and nothing horrible. It didn't grab my attention at all. I'll probably never listen to it again.

This week (thirty years ago) one of the all time great albums hit #1 on the charts in its first week of sales. It would go on to sell over 10 million copies, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. And deservedly so. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins is one of my favorite albums. According to last.fm, I have played a song off the album over 600 times.

I remember when the lead single off the album, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, hit the radio. Of course it's a banger, but what I remember thirty years later is mishearing the line "despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage." I could make out the "despite all my rage" part, but I couldn't quite figure out the second half. I think I had some nonsense words there, but it's been so long since I learned the correct words that I've forgotten what I thought the words were!

Another single off the album, 1979, was cool because that's the year I was born. The song is about entering adolescence, and in 1995 I was in the throes of adolescence myself. A great coincidence!

All of the big singles off this album still get plenty of radio plays, but the whole album deserves to be listened to in its entirety. I did not find listening to this album another time for this project a chore or unpleasant. Indeed, it was a pleasure, and I look forward to listening to the album again and again for years to come. You should listen to the album today, and again and again.

Rising to #3, Design of a Decade 1986/1996 is a greatest-hits album of Janet Jackson.

When it comes to the music, I don't care about it. I've heard a few of the songs before, likely contemporaneously, and also since 1995. Janet Jackson had been a big star for years, so of course I've heard some of her music. It's solid pop music, I concede, but it's not for me.

What I find more interesting is the name of the album: Design of a Decade 1986/1996, what does that even mean? I do not believe that Janet Jackson planned (designed) a whole decade of music, recorded it, with the target of a greatest hits collection. Also, the title is factually wrong! The album was released in early October 1995, nearly three months before 1996 even started. 1986 to 1995 represents ten years (aka a decade, count it out). Putting 1996 in the title is both illegitimate and numerically incorrect. The only thing it has is alliteration, which isn't much (lots of words start with the same letter as other words). It's a stupid name. Stupid!

My verdict: This album can be left to the dustbin of history.

After last week's album, some Green Day is very welcomed. Coming off their smash hit Dookie, Insomniac was return to harder, less poppy punk music. Debuting at #2, it never reached #1 and didn't sell anywhere near as well as Dookie (although few albums do).

I don't know why but I haven't listened to Insomniac that much over the years. I do like punk music, and listening to it now it's in my wheelhouse of musical taste. I think I'll add it to my rotation and I'll try to revisit it more often. This is a win and why I do this project. I suggest that you check out Insomniac, too!

Sigh, it's another Mariah Carey album. I'm pretty sure this is the third Mariah Carey album I've done. This is gonna hurt.

Rocketing to #1 upon release, Daydream had three singles reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 list. Because of the popularity of the songs off this album, I certainly recall hearing them on the radio.

I don't miss hearing the songs as frequently on the radio, and I didn't appreciate hearing them again. I get that Mariah Carey is very popular and successful, but I will be happy to never review one of her albums again. It's not for me.

Ballbreaker by AC/DC debuted at #4 on the album sales chart.

There's nothing particularly special about this album. None of the songs are amazing, the lead track Hard as a Rock was the best performing single and only hit #33 in the US. That being said, none of the songs are terrible, which across a whole album is somewhat unusual. That's probably because the band had over 20 years of experience.

As far as it goes, the market agrees with me. Next week the album drops to #9, then #12, and so on. This is a common pattern with older, established acts on the charts. They sell well to start but there's no long tail of people discovering them keeping the album sales high.

If you're into AC/DC, check it out, but don't expect much.